A Weblog by One Humble Bookman on Topics of Interest to Discerning Readers, Including (Though Not Limited To) Science Fiction, Books, Random Thoughts, Fanciful Family Anecdotes, Publishing, Science Fiction, The Mating Habits of Extinct Waterfowl, The Secret Arts of Marketing, Other Books, Various Attempts at Humor, The Wonders of New Jersey, the Tedious Minutiae of a Boring Life, Science Fiction, No Accounting (For Taste), And Other Weighty Matters.

Who Is This Hornswoggler?

Andrew Wheeler is a Vassar alum, class of 1990. He spent 16 years as a bookclub editor (mostly for the Science Fiction Book Club), and then moved into marketing. He marketed books and related products to accountants for Wiley for eight years, and now works for Thomson Reuters as Senior Marketer for Corporate Counsel. He was a judge for the 2005 World Fantasy Awards and the 2008 Eisner Awards. He also reviewed a book a day for a year twice. He lives with The Wife and two mostly tame sons (Thing One, born 1998; and Thing Two, born 2000) at an unspecified location in suburban New Jersey. He has been known to drive a minivan, and nearly all of his writings are best read in a tone of bemused sarcasm. Antick Musings’s manifesto is here. All opinions expressed here are entirely and purely those of Andrew Wheeler, and no one else.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Nobody ever clicks on these, so I post them partially for my own amusement and partially to make it look like I have more content here. Well, actually, since it's been months since I did this, I should probably say those used to be my reasons. Now, I'm just doing it to clear some things out of my in-box and feel like I'm accomplishing something this evening.

First, Amazon suspects that some of you may be going back to school yourselves, or that you have little varmints underfoot that will be doing so -- for them, Amazon has created a banner! (That 75% of half-smart Internet users have already blocked.)

And then, Amazon tries hard to make their customers happy, which means that they probably get a lot of returns, which is the reason I think there's a big Deep Discounts on Open-Box and Used Products thing going on now. And this is the banner:

I also had banners for summer clothes, but the dude in the ad was just so obnoxiously board-shorted and dudely that I can't stomach putting him here for the two of you who haven't learned how to block ads yet. But there's plenty of other stuff to buy at Amazon, believe you me. They'll take over all world commerce if you don't watch out.

And Last, without any banners, if you want to shop or buy anything from that hegemonic Internet retailer, here's a link for you. It'll divert a tiny piece of what you would have paid anyway into my pocket, which I appreciate.